Nanomaterials: Applying the Precautionary Principle
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NANOMATERIALS: APPLYING THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE Photo credit: Hinkle Group, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Nanomaterials: Applying the Precautionary Principle Nanodimensions – New discoveries about Nanomaterials are composed of nanosized particles, familiar materials measuring less than 100 nanometres in at least one dimension: a nanometre is one-billionth of a metre, or roughly 80 000 The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jean- times smaller than a human hair. Nanomaterials are not new Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa and they are not all synthetic; they do occur naturally and they for their three decades of learning to design and synthesize are everywhere. What is new is our ability to engineer them molecular machines, demonstrated by a four-nanometre- from common materials for a functional purpose. long ‘car’ with four wheels operated by molecular motors.1 Scientists have continued to push the boundaries and explore In the natural world, nanomaterials appear in the skeletons of new technologies, in this case for innovations beyond physical marine plankton and corals; bird beaks and feathers; animals’ limitations that realize the potential for countless applications hair and bone matrix, including the human variety; spider webs; in everyday life. The recent advances in nanotechnology scales and wings; even in paper, silk and cotton. There are also and nanoscience have introduced nanoscale materials naturally occurring inorganic nanomaterials, such as some with emergent physical and chemical properties to clays, volcanic ash, soot, interstellar dust, and certain minerals. transform the world.2,3,4 Natural nanomaterials are fundamentally a result of chemical, photochemical, mechanical, thermal and biological processes.5,6 24 Research suggests that some preparation methods used in traditional medicine, such as calcination, inadvertently produce nanomaterials and their particular attributes.7,8 Natural Manufactured As well, researchers are examining medieval weapons, such as Damascus steel blades, to test the theory that specific 1 millimetre (mm) and ritualized forging and annealing techniques exploited production of nanomaterials to enhance strength and 9,10 A grain of sand suppleness of the steel. 1 mm 100 micrometre (μm) Paper thickness In the engineered world, nanomaterials are deliberately or micron 100 μm designed and synthesized for specific optical, electronic, mechanical, medical and enzymatic applications using Human hair a range of micro-fabrication techniques. Today, nanomaterials 80 μm are widely used in a variety of products, such as food, Glass fibre optic cosmetics, personal care products, antimicrobial agents 10 micron 50 μm and disinfectants, clothing and electronic devices. Along FACIAL SCRUB with the excitement about opportunities the engineered Fern spores nanomaterials could present, questions have emerged about 50 μm the environmental safety of nanomaterials, as well as their Plastic microbeads in facial scrubs production and applications. There are still significant gaps in 1 micron = 1-1 000 μm 1 000 nanometre (nm) our knowledge about what nanomaterials could do and what effects they might have. Despite many more nanomaterials Spider silk being developed, there is a serious risk that we do not know 4 μm enough about the long-term effects of these materials on Nanosilica used as food additive human health or the environment to use them without 100 nm 10-200 nm greater safeguards in place. Ebola virus 80 nm 10 nm Quantum dots or Nanocrystaline, used in ultra-efficient solar cells 2-10 nm Asbestos fibrils 25 nm 1 nm Nanomachine The creators won the 2016 Nobel Prize Carbon nanotube DNA diameter in Chemistry diameter 4 nm 2.5 nm 1 nm H 0.1 nm O H Buckminsterfullerene C60 or buckyball Water molecule 0.7 nm 0.27 nm Nanosized wing scale of Cabbage White Butterfly, Pieris brassicae Photo credit: ZEISS Microscopy, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 REPORT 2017 FRONTIERS ENVIRONMENT UN 25 NANOMATERIALS: APPLYING THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE Specific forms, applications and effects In Lewis Carroll’s story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, young Alice swallows a potion that makes her very small. In her new size, she is able to enter a world of animals and characters that have extraordinary behaviours quite unlike their larger world versions. At nanoscale, the physical, chemical, optical, magnetic and electrical properties and behaviours of the materials change significantly compared to the same materials at larger sizes. This happens because of the dramatic increase in the surface-to-volume ratio and the appearance of quantum effects as a material gets smaller. Rendering a nanosized version of a material can produce capabilities in materials that are otherwise inert. For example, bulk gold is diamagnetic—it responds very weakly to magnetic field—but gold nanoparticles possess unusual Iron (III) oxide (Fe2O3) nanorods, grown on reduced graphene oxide for magnetic properties.11 supercapacitors Photo credit: Dilek Ozg/Engineering at Cambridge, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Like their bulk counterparts, nanoforms of metals, such as silver, titanium and zinc and their oxides, are used in Nanodiamonds demonstrate functional characteristics that sunscreen, toothpaste, cosmetics, food, paints, and clothing.12 enable them to penetrate through the blood-brain barrier, Due to its antimicrobial properties, nanosilver is widely and allow targeted delivery of remedies to multiple types incorporated into many consumer products such as sports of cancerous tumours.13,14 Because of their fluorescence, textiles, shoes, deodorants, personal care items, washing optical and electrochemical properties, nanodiamonds are powder and washing machines. used in advanced bioimaging techniques, and promising materials for transmitting signals that indicate the health of brain function.15,16 Nanozymes are nanomaterials with intrinsic enzyme-like properties developed for biosensing, bioimaging, tumour diagnosis and therapy.17 They also find applications in marine anti-fouling, pollutant removal and environmental monitoring. Carbon nanomaterials can present themselves in various shapes and forms. Graphene is a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon. Carbon nanotubes are essentially graphene sheets rolled into seamless hollow cylinders with diameters of the order of a nanometre.18 Discovered in 1985, buckminsterfullerene, or buckyball, is a spherical structure of 60 carbon atoms, named after R. Buckminster Fuller, famous for his design of geodesic domes. Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanospheres Photo credit: ZEISS Microscopy licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 26 Nanomaterials Applications What is a Nanomaterial? Nanomaterial is a material with any external The unique mechanical, dimension measured magnetic, electrical and less than optical properties of Cu 100 nanometres—one nanomaterials provide endless nanometre is one-billionth applications in pharmaceutical, Ti Au Zn Ag of a metre biomedical, electronic and material Nanomaterials can be Engineered nanomaterials Nanosilver engineering naturally occurring, or is widespread in products, such as are present in diverse fabricated by scaling textiles, toys, personal and health consumer items, e.g. food commonly used materials to care products, medical devices products, cosmetics, nanosize, such as carbon, and food, owing to its disinfectants, kitchenware, metal oxides and antimicrobial baby goods, clothing, precious metals Global properties fabrics, electronics Nanomaterials market Because of its magnetic properties, and appliances iron oxide nanoparticles 20.7% Annual Growth have great potentials for targeted At nanoscale, the drug delivery in cancer properties and Projected to reach treatment, medical imaging behaviours of a US$ 55 billion techniques, and removal of material change significantly by 2022 arsenic from water compared to the bulk forms of Nanodiamond Graphene is a single-atom- the same material. This is is used in biomedical thick sheet of carbon atoms. imaging applications due due to the increase in the Bulk material Nano-sized material Potential applications include surface-to-volume to its luminescent properties, drug delivery systems, high chemical stability ratio and the molecular transporters, and biocompatibility quantum effects. A football-like cage of tissue engineering As material size decreases, surface area-to-volume 60 carbon atoms, known as and implants. ratio increases, making the material more Buckminsterfullerene chemically reactive to its surrounding environment (C60) or buckyball, has potentials for the treatment of bone and cartilage degeneration, and The miniscule musculoskeletal and bone dimensions and high marrow disorders surface-to-volume ratio that Carbon nanotube is a one- give engineered nanomaterials atom thick layer of carbon rolled remarkable properties also alter up into a seamless cylinder. It is how they interact with and 117 times stronger than steel accumulate in biological systems, of the same diameter and ranging from the environment, a better conductor living organisms, organs, ! than copper. cells, down to the DNA level If we want to realise the full potential of engineered Changing the properties of a For example, nanomaterials, we must also material by nanosizing it can carbon nanotubes look anticipate their impacts, Carbon nanotubes are widely intensify its health and behave like asbestos otherwise we risk exposing used in lithium ion batteries, and environmental fibres. Their long and pointy ourselves to far greater